In A. Rajala, A. Cortez, R. Hofmann, A. Jornet, H. Lotz-Sisitka, & L. Markauskaite (Eds.), Proceedings of the annual International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2025). ISLS.
ABSTRACT: Solving geometry problems often requires generating auxiliary lines. Yet, learning to generate auxiliary lines is challenging, because it involves envisioning figural elements that by definition are not yet overtly available for students’ visual sensing or teachers’ direct indexing. Espousing an enactivist perspective, this design-based research project explores dance as a culturally authentic grounding context for geometrical reasoning. Learning new dance movements often elicits the spontaneous mental generation of attentional anchors, imaginary perceptual structures enabling dancers to perform complex coordinations. We conjectured that, given appropriate semiotic resources, dancers could objectify their tacit attentional anchors from dance practice as explicit auxiliary lines for geometry practice. We report on a pilot evaluation of GRiD, a low-cost resource for blending dance and geometry. Microgenetic analysis of a young Balinese dancer’s multimodal actions and utterances reveals the emergence of an interdisciplinary nexus of practice imbricating dance and mathematics and benefiting both discourses.